I am the mom of a 14 year old that was diagnosed with dyslexia at the end of Kindergarten and ADHD inattentive type in second grade. I am also a special education advocate so I will be able to address your concerns from two perspectives: As a mom with all of the emotional issues that come attached, and as a professional that works with families and schools to help children like yours.
First – congratulations on getting him tested and beginning the process. Many parents become paralyzed and cannot take the first step (evaluation) to help their child.
You ask about why the school does not use the term “Dyslexia” . The main reason most schools that I deal with (Boston area) use specific learning disability in reading, is because this is the eligibity category listed in IDEA (Federal Special education law) and state law. There is some reference to dyslexia in the legal writings, but it is typically called SLD (specific learning disability). There is also a lot of discussion even among educators that use the word dyslexia as to its precise meaning. Questions as to whether it includes comprehension issues or only decoding and fluency issues persist. I agree that it is word play and I think it is crazy. That said, my recommendation is to use whatever term the school uses. You don’t want to get lost in a discussion about word usage at the expense of getting a good plan and the proper instruction for your child. It’s a case where you pick your battles.
As far as the ADHD-in. I cannot say whether or not your son has this. But, you should know that there is a very high co-morbidity rate between dyslexia and ADHD. Often times ADHD-in does not present with the social and family problems that ADHD hyperactive, impulse or combined does. I was SHOCKED when my son’s teachers raised the idea of inattention. My son can spend hours at a task. Little did I understand that those hours were because of a lack of attention – not focused concentration? He could get lost in thoughts, zone out and remain “working” and well behaved. After two years of trying alternative approaches to his inattention, we tried medication. It produced instant dramatic results. And, as your evaluator said, brought my son to a place where he could take full advantage of the instruction we provided for his LD.
As far as the testing goes – lot’s of scatter (highs and lows between test scores) are a hallmark for LD. In addition to achievement ability discrepancies, you will usually see very low processing speed and working memory scores on the WISC (IQ test) compared to Verbal comprehension and and Perceptual reasoning. For more complex learners, you might also see a lot of scatter within indices. For example, my son’s VCI (verbal comprehension) score is more than 50 points than his processing speed. He is very bright if you look at the reasoning scores on the WISC, average in memory, and borderline in his rate of processing. Like your son, the difference between his ability and achievement on most measures is also vast.
So, what to do about it? My guess is that your son has challenges across all subjects – especially when reading and writing is involved. Given the ADHD diagnosis, my sense is that he also has trouble with organization, planning and getting started on his work. ALL of his challenges should be addressed in his IEP. (Also – it is not unusual for kids with reading disablities to need speech. This is often a warning sign. Thus – the diagnosis can be very broad “Language Based Learning Disabilty”).
I suggest you read “Overcoming Dyslexia” by Sally Shaywitz. She lists and explains the components of a sound reading remediation program. The program will have a large component of a rules based, multisensory, phonemic reading program to teach the child the sound symbol relationship and the rules of written language. It should have a component of fluency to help the child develop an automatic, accurate recognition of words and word patterns and learn to read at a rate that will be fluid enough to allow the brain to comprehend.
Most of the Phonemic reading programs are derivatives of the Orton Gillingham Approach. Schools often use Wilson, Project Read, Barton, LiPS, Lively Letters. For fluency many schools use Great Leaps or Read Naturally. You can get an overview on many on line sites. Here are some of my favorites:
http://www.interdys.org/www.ldonline.orgReading rockets
http://www.adlit.org/http://www.smartkidswithld.org/As far as what to expect from the school. This depends on so many things – the culture of your school, their resources, the complexity of your child’s needs. We ended up placing our child in a school that specializes in teaching kids with dyslexia from grade 3-8. (
www.Carrollschool.org). My son is profoundly dyslexic and even our affluent, high performing school district realized he needed an intensive environment. (There is a similar school in the DC /NoVa area – I am blanking on the name). I have also worked with families that have kept their kids in the public school with good results.
The key is to get a comprehensive program, delivered with sufficient intensity, by skilled professionals. Sometimes lack of resources gets in the way. It is also helpful to surround yourself with professional advisors such as your evaluator to help you cut through the special ed maze.
I hope that this helps!!
Oh - one more thing. It is critical that you fully understand your rights and responsibilities in the special ed process.
www.wrightslaw.com is a great resource.
